Pelham Mayor Don Murphy has given city council members a list of cost-cutting ideas to consider as the council works to complete a budget for 2010-2011.

Murphy said he prepared the list at the council's request to help avoid going into city reserves to balance the new budget, which is scheduled to be on the Oct. 4 meeting agenda.

Like other cities, Pelham is struggling with reduced tax revenue and increases in costs that can't be controlled, such as rising employee benefits and workers' compensation insurance, Murphy said.

At the same time, Murphy said he advocates only one of the proposals on his list -- reworking the city's retirement ordinance.

The ordinance calls for retirees to lose city insurance if they exceed a certain amount of income at another job, Murphy said.

"If people can leave here and make a lot of money, I say good for them," Murphy said. "This ordinance just prevents people who want to retire from doing so."

Some other cost-cutting proposals the council is looking at include a hiring freeze for essential personnel positions that might become vacant, a reduction of the vehicle fleet, eliminating employee education incentives, increasing single-coverage employee insurance contributions, and a reduction in seasonal personnel such as summer groundskeepers.

The list also includes an across-the-board 3 percent pay reduction for all employees.

"I want it clear that I do not advocate any of these ideas except the change in the retirement," Murphy said. "I want to avoid pay cuts and layoffs."

Pelham City Councilman Steve Powell said his main concern with the list is it doesn't address cutting costs outside the city's core services, such as Ballantrae Golf Club, the Pelham Racquet Club and the Pelham Civic Center.

Powell said while he is not in favor of shutting those services down, they need to be examined.

"When an entity creates the situation where the city is in the red, before you cut any core services, you need to assess and streamline those entities," Powell said.

Powell said because council members do not have enough information on the cost-cutting items, he believes few if any will be implemented before the new budget is adopted.

"I do think we'll revisit this list and possibly implement some of the measures later in the year or for the 2012 fiscal year," Powell said.

Powell said while the new budget is scheduled to be on the Oct. 4 council meeting agenda as a first reading, it is subject to a suspension of the rules, which, if unanimously supported by council members, would allow a vote that night.